St. Paul Public Works plans to move forward this year with a grassy, bicycle-friendly median along Cleveland Avenue at Jefferson Avenue that has drawn both praise and criticism from residents in the area who are weighing the merits of a narrower crossing.

The median would force northbound and southbound traffic along Cleveland Avenue to slow and traffic along Jefferson Avenue to make right turns.

Public Works has tentatively proposed that the median go before the St. Paul City Council on Aug. 17. If approved, construction could begin in October or November.

“The council will have to act affirmatively before we can move forward,” said Dave Hunt, a spokesman for Public Works.

City council member Pat Harris is among those who are against the idea.

“In my estimation, it has questionable safety merits because of the nature of that road,” said Harris, who had until recently considered the proposal dead. “In effect, it (will) squeeze traffic onto neighboring streets….I really don’t think it’s going to improve safety. There’s probably other things we can do.”

The intersection is seen as a key component in the Jefferson Avenue bicycle boulevard project, a proposed $1 million bikeway from West Seventh Street to Mississippi River Boulevard. Bike lanes were added last fall on Jefferson from Lexington Parkway east to Seventh Street, and the speed limit along the path was dropped from 40 mph to 30 mph.

Other aspects of the bikeway, such as neighborhood traffic circles at Colborne, Wheeler, Davern and Macalester streets, were scrapped because of community opposition. Proponents say the median at Cleveland is an essential next step.

“We definitely believe that if this is going to be a street that’s going to work well for bicyclists and pedestrians, this is a very important design element,” said Steve Clark, bicycling and walking program manager for Transit for Livable Communities. “Just calling something a bike route doesn’t quite do it. A median is one of those things, we know from studies, that really makes a difference.”

A temporary test median, installed in August 2010 and removed in November, generated plenty of public feedback, much of it negative. The goal of the temporary median, which was federally funded through TLC, was to make the crossing safer for bicyclists and pedestrians and reduce nonlocal traffic.

To discourage non-residential drivers, the test median prevented drivers from taking left turns from Cleveland onto Jefferson. In addition, drivers along Jefferson were diverted onto Cleveland.

“If you’re living along Jefferson, most people would see it as a benefit because it means less car traffic,” Clark said. “There’s slightly more traffic on streets to the north and south. It was not at all inconsistent with what you would find on a residential street. They’re all well under 500 cars a day.”

A report from St. Paul Public Works notes that many St. Paul streets carry upward of 1,000 cars per day.

TLC maintains the experiment worked, more or less. Average travel speeds through the intersection dropped by about 1 or 2 mph, a “modest decrease” that inched drivers closer to the posted speed limit of 30 mph, according to a TLC report issued in January.

More importantly, many cars sought out alternate routes. Between 157 and 191 fewer vehicles per day traveled on Jefferson between Kenneth Street and Cleveland Avenue, and 134 to 196 fewer vehicles per day drove on Jefferson between Cleveland and Finn Street.

On the flipside, traffic on adjacent streets increased, especially on Wellesley Avenue and Kenneth, which saw “modest increases” of 100 vehicles per day apiece, according to the report.

The test median drew 284 negative comments and 186 positive ones. Cleveland and Jefferson both run one-lane in each direction, with street-side parking.

Colleen Kelly, a mother of five who lives on Juliet Avenue, said she envisions piles of snow heaped up on a traffic island that will be difficult to clear and fire department rigs forced to make detours. She was surprised to learn that the issue had resurfaced.

“Everyone on my street has a car,” Kelly said. “The more stuff that the city is putting up in the middle of the road and on the sides of the road – it’s distracting drivers. They’re not paying attention to important things, like the other cars and the people in the road, because we’re putting up so many obstacles. We’re not a Southern climate. We’re a winter climate. We drive….Especially in this day and age, it’s not very business-friendly.”

About a fourth of the critical comments stated that Cleveland is already too narrow and that adding a median would be unsafe, even though its travel lanes are 12 feet wide, as wide as or wider than comparable streets. Travel lanes on Dale Street near Selby Avenue, for instance, are 10 feet wide.

“The perception that lanes are narrower makes people drive more cautiously, so it’s actually a positive thing,” Clark said. “They’re real concerns, but they’re not legitimized by actual engineering practice or studies that are out there in terms of safety.”

The Public Works report from engineer David Kuebler noted that the lanes could be widened at the median to 14 feet if necessary.

The Macalester Groveland Community Council’s Transportation Committee met Monday night and decided not to vote for or against the proposal, though the council was expected to continue discussions.

Frederick Melo was once sued by a reader for $2 million but kept on writing. He came to the Pioneer Press in 2005 and brings a testy East Coast attitude to St. Paul beat reporting. He spent nearly six years covering crime in the Dakota County courts before switching focus to the St. Paul mayor's office, city council, and all things neighborhood-related, from the city's churches to its parks and light rail. A resident of Hamline-Midway, he is married to a Frogtown woman. He Tweets with manic intensity at @FrederickMelo.

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